Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Men's Basketball Visits Colgate Wednesday Night
2/7/2012 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 7, 2012
WHAT: Bucknell (18-6, 8-0 PL) at Colgate (7-16, 1-7 PL)
WHERE: Cotterell Court, Hamilton, N.Y.
WHEN: Wednesday, Feb. 8, 7 p.m. ET
LIVE WEBCAST: Bison Vision 
RADIO: Eagle 107 (WEGH 107.3 FM) and SportsJuice.com
LIVE STATS: GoColgateRaiders.com
Complete Game Notes in PDF Format 
With a Win over Colgate, Bucknell Would ...
• ... win its 11th straight game and improve to 19-6 on the season.
• ... establish the team's longest winning streak under coach Dave Paulsen.
• ... sweep the season series against the Raiders.
• ... get out to an 9-0 start in Patriot League play for the second time ever (2006).
• ... maintain a two-game lead in the Patriot League standings.
• ... win its 19th straight game against Patriot League foes dating back to last season (including postseason), extending the longest conference winning streak in the nation.
• ... win its seventh straight road game and improve to 9-5 on the road this season.
Headlines
• The red-hot Bison hit the road Wednesday night to take on Colgate at Cotterell Court. Winners of 10 straight games overall, Bucknell is 8-0 in the Patriot League and holds a two-game lead over American and Lehigh with six games remaining. Colgate enters the game in seventh place at 1-7.
• Bucknell has won 10 straight games, 13 of its last 15, and 18 of its last 22. Since Dec. 1, 2010, Bucknell is 41-9.
• Bucknell's current 18-game winning streak against conference opponents is the longest in the nation. The Bison's last Patriot League loss came at the hands of Army, 90-70 at West Point on Jan. 29, 2011.
• Last time out, Bucknell pulled away late for an 81-68 home victory over Army on Saturday night. Colgate is coming off a tough 59-58 home loss to American in which a potential game-winning shot rimmed out in the final seconds.
• Mike Muscala is averaging 19.3 points over his last 14 games, and he has upped his season scoring average to 16.3, fourth-best in the Patriot League. Cameron Ayers (11.5), Joe Willman (10.1) and Bryson Johnson (9.5) are also top scorers.
• Muscala continues to lead the Bison in rebounding (9.3) and blocked shots (1.5). He leads the Patriot League in rebounding by a wide margin, and he has 11 double-doubles this season, the most in the league. He is five shy of the school record for double-doubles in a season.
• Bryan Cohen has also been red hot of late. Cohen scored a season-high 19 points in Saturday's win over Army, and the senior guard is averaging 10.0 points per game while shooting 57.4% from the floor and 69.2% from 3-point range in Patriot League play.
• The Bison were unanimously picked as the preseason favorite in the Patriot League by the league's head coaches and SIDs.
• The Bison returned four starters from last year's team that finished 25-9 overall and 13-1 in the Patriot League. Bucknell went on to capture the Patriot League Tournament title, but the 14th-seeded Bison were ousted by red-hot Connecticut, the eventual national champions, in their NCAA Tournament opener.
How to Get the Game
• The Bucknell-Colgate game will not be televised, however a live webcast will be available on Bison Vision via BucknellBison.com as well as Patriot League All-Access via PatriotLeague.com (subscription rates apply).
• The game can be heard in the Susquehanna Valley on the radio on Eagle 107 (WEGH 107.3 FM), with Doug Birdsong and Terry Conrad describing the action. The pregame show begins 30 minutes before tip-off.
• The audio feed is available online free of charge via BucknellBison.com and SportsJuice.com.
• Live statistics are available at GoColgateRaiders.com.
Television Added for Lafayette Game
• Saturday's Bucknell-Lafayette game at Sojka Pavilion will now be televised on ESPN3 and ESPN Full-Court, in addition to RCN cable systems around the country and WBPH-60 in Eastern Pennsylvania.
Patriot League Success
• The Bison are 196-92 (.681) in Patriot League regular-season games, the best record of any league team. Including this season, they have finished at least .500 in PL play in 18 of 22 seasons.
• The victory at Lehigh on Jan. 18 made Bucknell the first Patriot League team to go 100 games over .500 in league play.
• The Bison won a league-record 23 straight contests against conference foes from Feb. 23, 2005 to Jan. 12, 2007.
• Bucknell had a streak of 35 straight wins at home against conference opponents come to an end in 2008. The Bison have currently won 13 in a row at home against league foes.
• Bucknell is one of eight Division I programs still unbeaten in its league (through Monday's games).
• Bucknell has won 18 straight games against Patriot League foes, 15 in the regular season and three in the Patriot League Tournament. Bucknell owns the longest active conference winning streak (including postseason) among Division I teams.
NCAA Leaders, Consecutive Wins vs. Conference Opponents (through Monday's games) Streak Team (Conference) Next Game 18 Bucknell (Patriot) Feb. 8 at Colgate 15 Kentucky (SEC) Feb. 7 vs. Florida 11 Mississippi Valley State (SWAC) Feb. 11 at Alcorn State 11 Murray State (Ohio Valley) Feb. 9 vs. Tennessee State 11 Saint Mary's (West Coast) Feb. 9 at Gonzaga
Bucknell vs. Colgate
• This will be the 98th all-time meeting between Bucknell and Colgate in a series that dates back to 1920. The Bison have a 57-40 series lead.
• As Patriot League rivals, Bucknell has won 36 of the 49 meetings, including 19 of 22 in Lewisburg.
• Bucknell is 9-1 against Colgate at Sojka Pavilion. The Raiders won there in the arena's inaugural season (2002-03), but since then the Bison have won nine in a row, including a 70-57 verdict back on Jan. 11.
• Bucknell is 10-4 in its last 14 games in Hamilton.
• Bucknell has won five straight over Colgate, sweeping the season series in each of the last two seasons. Last year, Bucknell won 76-49 at home and 77-69 at Cotterell Court.
• In the first meeting this season at Sojka Pavilion, Bryson Johnson scored 17 points and Mike Muscala added 13 points and 11 rebounds to lead Bucknell to a 70-57 victory. Bryan Cohen scored 11 of his 13 points in the second half, as the Bison maintained a lead of at least eight points for the game's final 22 minutes. Brandon James and Pat Moore scored 10 points each to lead Colgate.
Last Time Out
• After being honored prior to the game for scoring his 1,000th career point, Bryan Cohen went out and added 19 more to his total to lead Bucknell to a hard-fought 81-68 win over Army on Saturday night at Sojka Pavilion. Cohen went 8-for-10 from the floor and helped break open a close game in the second half with three drives to the basket, two of which resulted in 3-point plays.
• Mike Muscala had another big game with 16 points, while Bryson Johnson added 14 and Cameron Ayers 12. Johnson made his first four 3-point attempts of the night before finishing 4-for-5. Ayers scored 11 of his 12 points in the second half, including one stretch late in the game when he scored on three straight possessions after having a tooth knocked out in a hard collision along the sideline.
• Bucknell shot 70.8% from the floor in the first half en route to a 42-34 lead. Ayers went 0-for-5 in the first half, but the rest of the team was 17-for-19. The Bison finished at 61.4% for the game, equaling their season best (Binghamton).
• The game was tied three different times in the second half, but Cohen's 3-point play with 10:49 remaining gave the Bison the lead for good.
• Bucknell finished with a 26-21 rebounding edge and forced 14 turnovers.
• Cohen was also sharp defensively, as he helped limit the Patriot League's third-leading scorer, Ella Ellis, to 13 points on 4-for-10 shooting from the field.
Stats Worth Noting
• Bucknell is now 10-0 since point guard Ryan Hill joined the starting lineup.
• The Bison are 14-0 when leading at the half.
• Bucknell has shot 50% or better as a team in nine of its last 15 games. The Bison have shot 50% 11 times this season and are 11-0 in those games. Bucknell ranks 7th nationally in 3FG% at 40.9%.
• In the last nine games, Bucknell is shooting 47.1% (56-119) from 3-point distance.
• Bucknell leads the Patriot League in both field goal percentage (.472) and field goal percentage defense (.396).
• During this current 10-game winning streak, Bison opponents are shooting 37.1% (194-523). Only three of those 10 teams (Dartmouth, Lafayette, Army) have eclipsed 40%.
• The Bison rank 36th nationally (out of 338 teams) in fewest turnovers per game (11.9), but they only rank 266th in turnover margin (-1.7). Bucknell averages only 4.0 steals per game (335th), but it has counterbalanced that with a good FG% defense and strong defensive rebounding.
• Bucknell has been dominant on the glass for most of the year. After going -15 in rebound margin against Minnesota and Vanderbilt to start the season, the Bison are +157 since then and have outrebounded every opponent except Syracuse, Loyola, Lehigh and American. Bucknell's +6.0 rebound margin for the season is by far the best in the Patriot League and ranks 28th nationally.
• A big part of Bucknell's rebounding success has been limiting opponents' second chances. The Bison have held 17 of their 24 foes to eight or fewer offensive rebounds.
• Bucknell has been better at the free-throw line of late. After shooting just 68.5% at the line in their first 10 games, the Bison have made 79.2% (228-288) as a team in the last 14 contests. That includes a 21-for-21 performance in the win over Richmond, 15-for-15 in the win at Lafayette, and 10-for-10 in the win at Navy. Bucknell ranked third in the nation in free-throw shooting last season at 78.8%, and after the slow start the team is up to 75.1% this season.
• If you remove the freshman class from the free-throw ledger, Bucknell would be shooting 79.5% as a team, which would rank second in the nation, just five percentage points behind Weber State.
• Strangely, Bucknell has been a much better free-throw shooting team on the road this season. The Bison shoot 78.9% as a team in road games, but only 71.3% at Sojka Pavilion.
• Eight Bison have had at least one double-digit scoring game this season, and 10 of the 14 on the roster have done it at least once in his career.
Let's go Streaking
• Bucknell's early five-game winning streak was its longest in the months of November or December since the 2005-06 team started the season 5-0.
• The only longer November/December winning streaks in program history were a six-game streak in 1983-84 and a seven-gamer in 1956-57.
• Bucknell had its 18-game home-court winning streak snapped by Loyola on Dec. 28. The record remains a 24-game streak set across the 1985-86, 1986-87 and 1987-88 seasons.
• The 18-game home winning streak was the 11th-longest in the nation when it was broken.
• Bucknell's current 10-game winning streak is tied for seventh-longest nationally. Murray State's 23-game streak is No. 1.
• The last streak of longer duration than this current 10-game streak came in 2006-07, when the Bison set a modern-day record with a 14-game win streak.
• The 10-game winning streak is tied for 11th-longest in program history.
Longest Winning Streaks in Bucknell History (broken up by): 17* 3/1/1902 - 2/19/1904 (Allegheny) 15* 2/5/1901 - 2/11/1902 (at Princeton) 14 1/17/2007 - 3/4/07 (at Holy Cross, PL championship game) 14* 1/10/1908 - 1/27/1909 (at State College) 13* 3/9/1906 - 3/9/1907 (at Harrisburg Collegians) 13* 2/15/1918 - 2/8/1919 (at Lehigh) 12 1/7/2006 - 2/18/2006 (at Northern Iowa) 11 12/4/2004 - 1/23/2005 (at American) 11 2/1/1993 - 3/6/1993 (Holy Cross, PL championship game) 11* 2/6/1920 - 1/13/1921 (at Temple) 10 12/31/2011 - present 10 2/5/2011 - 3/17/11 (Connecticut, NCAA Tournament) 10 1/14/1984 - 2/8/1984 (at Lafayette) 10* 2/16/1919 - 12/20/1919 (at Syracuse) 9 12/28/2010 - 1/29/2011 (at Army) 9 1/21/1987 - 2/21/1987 (at Lafayette) 9 1/7/1975 - 1/25/1975 (Rutgers) 9* 2/19/1959 - 12/10/1959 (at Cornell) 9* 3/3/1956 - 12/28/1956 (vs. West Virginia Tech) 8 1/13/1996 - 2/7/1996 (at St. Bonaventure) 8 1/6/1989 - 1/25/1989 (at Delaware) 8* 2/26/1909 - 1/31/1910 (Allegheny) * Streak carried over multiple seasonsLongest Active Division I Winning Streaks Streak Team Next Game 23 Murray State Feb. 9 vs. Tennessee State 15 Kentucky Feb. 7 vs. Florida 13 Texas-Arlington Feb. 8 at Sam Houston State 12 Saint Mary's Feb. 9 at Gonzaga 11 Drexel Feb. 8 at James Madison 11 Mississippi Valley State Feb. 11 at Alcorn State 10 BUCKNELL Feb. 8 at Colgate 10 Long Beach State Feb. 9 at Pacific 9 VCU Feb. 8 vs. Towson
What's Next?
• After the Colgate game the Bison return home to face Lafayette on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Sojka Pavilion.
• The Bison defeated the Leopards 79-65 in Easton on Jan. 14.
